# I am a straight guy - and I love Chick Flicks **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 5, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987 "2010-04-05T05:00:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![vdgg81](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@vdgg81](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vdgg81)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/21 "2010-04-05T19:39:25Z")
> [@tim314](#): > > **Love Actually** is a great movie, but very far from a typical “chick flick” in my opinion. The thing that bugs me about much of the genre (and here I’m thinking “romantic comedy”, perhaps “chick flick” is more broad) is just how _formulaic_ so many of them are. Couple meets . . . at first it seems like they hate each other . . . then _Big Surprise!_ they’re in love . . . then _Oh no!_ some sort of silly misunderstanding causes things to fall apart . . . then _Even Bigger Surprise!_ they get back together and live happily ever after… I agree. There are some romantic comedies I like, ( **Love Actually** , **About a Boy** , **High Fidelity** , etc…), but mostly they’re so repetitive I don’t want to go and watch another one. If the cast and the director are good enough to really charm the audience and if the writer can find a neat new twist I’ll watch it and like it. Otherwise no. Romantic melodramas and the like I hate with a passion. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/22 "2010-04-05T20:44:40Z")
I enjoy “chick flicks” just as much as any other genre of movies – both comedies and dramas. However, as with any genre, there are good ones and bad ones. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/23 "2010-04-05T21:26:29Z")
I break the trend, I freaking hate Love Actually. It’s one of my least favorite films ever. I think Notting Hill is not much better. Nonetheless, I don’t think of these as chick fliks. To me the chick flick is the overblown melodrama where one of the ladies dies at the end. I clould list a bunch, but since someone dies at the end of every one of them it would be a mass spoiler. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/24 "2010-04-05T21:34:05Z")
> [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](#): > > I break the trend, I freaking hate Love Actually. It’s one of my least favorite films ever. I think Notting Hill is not much better. Nonetheless, I don’t think of these as chick fliks. > > To me the chick flick is the overblown melodrama where one of the ladies dies at the end. I clould list a bunch, but since someone dies at the end of every one of them it would be a mass spoiler. I don’t know if your definition of “chick flick” would be widely accepted. What you’re describing I’d call a “weepy”, or “three handkerchief” movie. The _Sex and the City_ movie would pretty definitively be called a “chick flick”, and nobody dies in that one. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/25 "2010-04-05T21:59:37Z")
I liked _Little Women_ and _Legends Of The Fall_. I cry easily, but mostly for movies like _Saving Private Ryan_. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/26 "2010-04-05T22:16:52Z")
Are you sure many of these movies are chick flicks? **IQ** , **Say Anything** , **High Fidelity** , and **Legends of the Fall** aren’t what I’d call chick flicks, and even though I haven’t seen the movie yet, **Crazy Heart’s** trailer didn’t really paint it out to be a chick flick–unless Jeff Bridges is hiding something under that tripped-out beard. Comedy+Character Depth+No Explosions != Chick Flick. I’ve always hated chick flicks. I saw **How to Make an American Quilt** in '96, and even though I’d never heard the term, I knew right off the bat that this was a specific genre and that watching it made me feel dirty–the \*bad \*kind of dirty. I’ve said it before, though, and I’ll say it here. I like _one_ chick flick: **Under the Tuscan Sun**. Watching Frances picking up the pieces of her old life and starting another brought back memories from when I did more or less the same thing, and neither Sandra Oh or Diane Lane are ever hard on the eyes. But that’s it, though. At least the only one I’ll admit to liking on _this_ board. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/27 "2010-04-05T23:43:42Z")
I’m a woman, and I generally don’t like romantic comedies. I agree with **tim** that they are too formulaic. At least with action movies you get to see shit blow up. But my major problem with them is that I find it really hard to relate to the female characters. These women always seem so desperate and pathetic, as if their entire world revolves around finding a man. Also, it’s such a sacharine and sterilized depiction of love. Love to me is nothing like they depict in these films. The real thing is so much… better. And the romantic dramas, a la Nicholas Sparks… blerg. I don’t care much for dramas anyhow, but I can’t think of anything less interesting to me than a dramatic love story. I’ve got nothing against romance… in fact, I’m a sucker for it. It’s just that I’d much rather see some other main storyline that has a romantic subplot. That said, there are a handful of phenomenal movies that would fit the ‘‘romantic comedy’’ description, and **Love Actually** is one of them. And there are some good romantic dramas, like **Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon** and **Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind**. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/28 "2010-04-06T16:55:37Z")
> [@tim314](#): > > **Love Actually** is a great movie, but very far from a typical “chick flick” in my opinion. The thing that bugs me about much of the genre (and here I’m thinking “romantic comedy”, perhaps “chick flick” is more broad) is just how _formulaic_ so many of them are. Couple meets . . . at first it seems like they hate each other . . . then _Big Surprise!_ they’re in love . . . then _Oh no!_ some sort of silly misunderstanding causes things to fall apart . . . then _Even Bigger Surprise!_ they get back together and live happily ever after. > > Although, in fairness, adding a “twist ending” where they _don’t_ get back together and instead live miserably ever after wouldn’t exactly increase my enjoyment of the movie. I like when they don’t have the predictable ending. Like _Kissing Jessica Stein_. But then again, that’s more indie film than chick flick. Anyway, my brother likes chick flicks. I know I’ll always have someone to go see the Sex in the City movies, and it’s not my husband. He watches _The Devil Wears Prada_. I think he’s so cute that way. Someday he’ll make a girl happy, watching all the chick flicks she can handle. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/29 "2010-04-06T16:59:08Z")
I’m a gay guy and like chick flicks, particularly rom coms, however if it’s overly sappy then I can get a bit turned off. I like a good cry as the next [del]man[/del] person, but if the film is pulling my heart string out of my chest rather than tugging on them then I start to feel like the film maker isn’t so good. There is also the phenomenon where all chick flicks [can start to look the same](http://www.cracked.com/funny-4725-nicholas-sparks/). ---
**Author:** ![Surbey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/30 "2010-04-07T21:43:14Z")
OP, I’m glad I’m not alone in this. To list a few… [ul] [li]Pride and Prejudice[/li][li]Tristan and Isolde[/li][li]Time Traveler’s Wife[/li][li]Dawson’s Creek (TV show but I always enjoyed it. Sorta fits this category.)[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/31 "2010-04-07T22:07:37Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > In fairness, most of the films disparaged as “chick flicks” are romantic comedies. To my mind, not all romantic comedies are “chick flicks” (and, of course, vice versa). In particular, if the story is told all or in part from the point of view of the male lead, who is at least somewhat sympathetic and multi-dimensional, I don’t consider it a “chick flick.” For what it’s worth, very few of the movies that have been mentioned so far in this thread are named in the [Wikipedia article on Chick Flicks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_flick) (although I have some problems with its list as well). ---
**Author:** ![bearman217](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e4f/32.png) [@bearman217](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bearman217)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/32 "2010-04-08T23:32:54Z")
I love chick flicks myself! They actually go in depth with the emotional development of a character instead of solely focusing on stoic characters that advance a storyline. In When Harry Met Sally, Harry developed into a human being instead of a testosterone driven womanizer. In Love Actually Collin finds a place to belong amongst Americans, the Prime Minister sacrifices his values to be with the girl he likes, Jamie learns Spanish in order to win the heart of his fiancee. In The Notebook, Noah never leaves Allie even after her memory goes and also worked against all odds in order to win her in the first place. I could go on for days about this. I just love movies where you can see into the heart of the character instead of just following their actions. ---
**Author:** ![lshaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e36b37/32.png) [@lshaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lshaw)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/33 "2010-04-09T08:40:19Z")
How about _Mean Girls_? Is that considered a chick flick? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/34 "2010-04-09T09:23:55Z")
> [@bearman217](#): > > Jamie learns Spanish Portuguese. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/35 "2010-04-09T14:08:23Z")
> [@lshaw](#): > > How about _Mean Girls_? Is that considered a chick flick? The subset of the chick flick: the teen film. Pretty young girls in high school drama. (That said, I’m a 26 year old woman who owns - and enjoys - this movie.) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/36 "2010-04-09T21:49:16Z")
> [@Serenata67](#): > > The subset of the chick flick: the teen film. Pretty young girls in high school drama. This might sound weird, but I actually like those more than romantic comedies. I don’t remember being wowed by **Mean Girls** , but **Clueless** and **Legally Blond** are legitimately good movies. I DO like movies where the ending is not so predictable. In \*\*Along Came Polly, \*\*which isn’t that great of a movie, I nonetheless loved the ending, which ended pretty realistically without being in any way depressing. And one of my all-time favorite movie endings was in **The Graduate**. That ‘‘WTF did we just do?’’ look of terror on both their faces as the bus rolled away was… perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/37 "2010-04-11T03:44:27Z")
I readthe title as Im a straight man and I love Chicks with Dicks. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/38 "2010-04-11T03:59:50Z")
> [@Cubsfan](#): > > I readthe title as Im a straight man and I love Chicks with Dicks. No, not a big fan of those. Are there any chick flicks that feature “Chicks with Dicks”? Maybe: The Crying Game. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/39 "2010-04-11T15:31:11Z")
You can watch a chick flick and still retain you straighthood if you balance it by by doing some arc-welding after the film. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987/40 "2010-04-11T18:24:06Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > You can watch a chick flick and still retain you straighthood if you balance it by by doing some arc-welding after the film. Or, indeed, by cleaning your gun whilst watching said chick flick. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-straight-guy-and-i-love-chick-flicks/534987.md?page=1)